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Oftentimes we participate in using hand-gestures in our daily lives, our Sabbath lives and our other worship lives without thinking through all of the symbolism and meanings which may be, or might have once been attached to these gestures. Certainly anyone visiting Hawaii (especially the Polynesian Cultural Center) understands why and how the salute involving the extended thumb and little finger came to be. Understanding comes when the visitor learns how the original worker had lost his first three fingers and so his ordinary “wave” was always with thumb and little-finger extended. This wave or salute consisted of all that he had left, and the salute disseminated from there. In much the same manner, we can understand or at least attempt to understand where and how ancient hand gestures originated and what they should mean to us today.
Thanks for your thought-provking article. Readers may also be interested in Sign Language of the Mysteries, by J.S.M. Ward:
https://www.amazon.com/Sign-Language-Mysteries-J-S-M-Ward/dp/1434104206